


You Bless Me, Gods

by firecat



Category: British Actor RPF, Coriolanus (2014), Coriolanus - Shakespeare, Tom Hiddleston - Fandom
Genre: Accents, Acting, Actors, Community: seasonofkink, Erections, Kissing, Knives, Laughter, M/M, Shakespeare Quotations, Theatre, stageplay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:15:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24598864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firecat/pseuds/firecat
Summary: Based on the Official Donmar Warehouse’s Coriolanus with Tom Hiddleston, film of a staged Shakespeare play.Which hasthatscene. You know, the one from 1:38:00 to 1:42:33.Howwouldan actor work with a scene like that?
Relationships: Hadley Fraser/Tom Hiddleston, Tullus Aufidius/Caius Martius | Coriolanus (Coriolanus)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 25
Collections: Season of Kink





	You Bless Me, Gods

**Author's Note:**

> for Season of Kink prompt: taboos

Alone in his room, Tom paces in frustration. 

They’re actors. They’re professionals. This isn’t supposed to happen.

But Tom can’t stop thinking about Hadley. 

They are not their roles. He must maintain the separation between their characters’s responses to each other, on the one hand, and...

Perhaps if he rehearses the scene in his mind again. 

He knows it by heart of course, but he turns to the page in his script, to help him focus.

_MARTIUS  
“present  
My throat to thee and to thy ancient malice;  
Which not to cut would show thee but a fool,  
Since I have ever follow'd thee with hate”_

Martius on his knees before Aufinius. Holding his arms out, offering himself for sacrifice or war. For which, he knows not. 

_AUFINIUS  
“If Jupiter  
Should from yond cloud speak divine things,  
And say ''Tis true,' I'd not believe them more—”_

Aufinius yanking Martius’s head against his chest. Aufinius kissing Martius’s forehead. Holding his chin to expose Martius’s vulnerable throat to his knife. 

_AUFINIUS  
“—Than thee, all noble Martius!”_

Aufinius drawing the knife along his throat, but it’s a trick. A mindfuck. Tom— _Martius, dammit_ —is supposed to rock back on his knees at that point. His hand to his still uncut throat. Confused. Lost. Then both hands moving purposelessly. 

_AUFINIUS  
“And scar'd the moon with splinters—”_

Hadl— _Aufinius_ —on his knees before him. Snatching at his hand, his shoulder. 

_AUFINIUS  
“here I clip  
The anvil of my sword”_

Hadley pulling Marti—Tom’s body against him. That gleeful grin. The rich Yorkshire accent he’s using, rolling the words against his tongue as if they were the nipples of a lover.

_AUFINIUS  
“and do contest  
As hotly and as nobly with thy love—”_

Hadley’s hands on his face.

_AUFINIUS:  
“—As ever in ambitious strength I did  
Contend against thy valour.”_

Hadley’s mouth on his. His beard is so soft. His hiss of pleasure so... _since when are stage-play kisses so...prolonged...?_

_AUFINIUS  
“that I see thee here,  
Thou noble thing! more dances my rapt heart  
Than when I first my wedded mistress saw  
Bestride my threshold.”_

Tom rising from his knees, turning as Hadley circles behind him. As if held by a lead and forced to move as Hadley moves. (The director had liked his suggestion.)

_AUFINIUS  
“We have been down together in my sleep,  
Unbuckling helms, fisting each other's throats”_

Hadley’s fingers hard against his cheek, Hadley’s hand slamming on his throat, and finally, _finally,_ the stage direction allows Tom to move, to act, to grip and squeeze Hadley’s throat in return, baring his teeth like a wild animal. 

_AUFINIUS  
“pouring war  
Into the bowels of ungrateful Rome,  
Like a bold flood o'erbear!”_

Hadley’s wild laugh, as Tom grabs him by both arms, thrusting him backward _(how he would like to continue the assault, push him to his knees, to his back, and...)_

_MARTIUS  
“You bless me, Gods.” _

Hadley’s feral, joyful laugh again, as Tom pulls his vibrant body hard against his own. Full of wonder at this gift. 

Tom groans and puts his head in his hands. This run-through didn't work any better than the others. If anything, he lost the separation between actors and characters even faster this time. 

He is achingly hard again, like the many previous times he’s tried to work through this scene, However is he going to hide the evidence when they’re on stage before an audience? An audience on _every_ side of them. Well. At least he’ll be wearing loose rags.

There’s a knock at the door of his room. Tom’s momentarily embarrassed. He’s wearing baggy sweatpants and no underwear, and the fabric’s stretched into a formidable tent now. 

The doorknob turns and the door begins to open. Of course, because he always has an open door policy during rehearsals. The better to bond with his fellow actors and crew. 

Well, what the hell. What’s making the tent is just a body doing something bodies do naturally. Whoever it is will have seen such things before. 

“Tom?”

Hadley stands in the doorway, holding a script under his arm. 

“I’m having difficulty with one of our scenes, and I thought maybe we could—“

He breaks off as his eyes catch sight of the condition of Tom’s sweatpants. 

“—uh, could—”

Then he notices Tom's script lying open on the table.

He looks Tom in the eyes and lets loose with that glorious, wild _laugh._

Tom’s face splits in a grin. He moves behind Hadley to shut the door. He twists the lock.

”You bless me, Gods,” he says.

**Author's Note:**

> If you come across this after the film is no longer on Youtube, you can see the scene here. (But really, it's worth watching the whole thing.)
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSQOdP56W-Q


End file.
